Canadian innovators win in national competition

Calgary, AB – Winners of 2013 Ernest C. Manning Innovation Awards were announced this week by Ernest C. Manning Awards Foundation president Jennifer Diakiw.

The 2013 winners – from British Columbia, Ontario and Nova Scotia – share $145,000 in prizes. The 2013 Young Canadian Award winners from Ontario and Quebec share $16,000 in prizes.

The five Young Canadian award winners, two now in university and three still in high school, created inspiring innovations which were showcased earlier this year at the 2013 Canada-Wide Science Fair.

The 2013 Ernest C. Manning Innovation Award recipients are:

• Dr. Patricia Lingley-Pottie and Dr. Patrick McGrath, Halifax, NS, co-recipients of the $100,000 Encana Principal Award for creating a social innovation, The Strongest Families Institute. The not-for-profit institute provides distance services to families dealing with behaviour, anxiety and bedwetting problems.
• Dr. Henry Luo, Kitchener, ON, $25,000 David E. Mitchell Award of Distinction, for developing AntiShock™ Technology. Since its creation in 2006 by Dr. Luo in Unitron’s research labs in Kitchener, AntiShock™ Technology has been integrated into five million hearing aids, now sold in 60 countries.
• Ilfor ‘Taffy’ Caine Davies, Oakville, ON, $10,000 Ernest C. Manning Innovation Award for developing Zafety Lug Lock®, a transport wheel locking device that ‘cuffs’ wheel nuts to create the required resistance to keep wheel bolts secure.
• Dan Eisenhardt and Hamid Abdollahi, Vancouver, BC, $10,000 Ernest C. Manning Innovation Award for developing Heads-up Display (HUD) technology which integrates state-of-the-art micro-computers into goggles and athletic sunglasses.
• David Drouin, 19, Quebec City, PQ, $4,000 Young Canadian Award for his 2013 Canada-Wide Science Fair project where he illustrated the potential of a relatively simple compound found in cinnamon, called cinnemaldehyde, in fighting off dangerous strains of E.coli bacteria.
• Meagan Fabel, 17, Windsor ON, $4,000 Young Canadian Award for her 2013 Canada-Wide Science Fair project where her research showed how to enhance the low-cost electrical energy output of the Gratzel solar cell.
• Adam Noble, 19, Lakefield ON, $4,000 Young Canadian Award for his 2013 Canada-Wide Science Fair project which showed the benefits of using silver nano-particle therapy as a new cure for cancer. Adam’s findings are now being researched as part of a Drug Discovery Program at Trent University.
• Pierre Clapperton Richard and Francis-Oliver Couture, 17, Saguenay, PQ, co-recipients of $4,000 Young Canadian Award for their 2013 Canada-Wide Science Fair project, EffiClasse, an iPad application that allows full management of “tablet-classes”. The application allows the teacher to create a group and then control the information and view the group users’ tablets.

Ernest C. Manning Innovation Award winners are selected by a distinguished independent selection committee, comprised of members from across Canada who are established leaders and authorities from various disciplines. They are supported in the selection process by experts in fields as diverse as medicine, genetics, engineering, industrial processes and social entrepreneurship. The Young Canadian Award winners were selected by a team of judges at the 2013 Canada-Wide Science Fair in May, 2013.

In announcing the 11 winners for 2013, Foundation President Jennifer Diakiw said, “This Foundation champions Canadian innovators of all ages from across Canada. These are Canadians who inspire us with their imagination to innovate and the stamina to succeed. We want to shine a national spotlight on them as Canada works to build our knowledge-based economy,” she said.

The 2013 awards will be presented to recipients at the 32nd annual Ernest C. Manning Innovation Awards Gala in Calgary on Wed. Oct. 16 before an audience of 600 Canadian innovators and leaders from business, academia and government. Global Television’s Chief Political Correspondent Tom Clark will host the awards ceremony. Tickets and tables are still available for the gala www.manningawards.ca